Hi, I am trying to locate Mary Ann Caroline WARD. I have found her birth and have a copy of her birth certificate which indicates only a mother and that she was born in Lilleshall. She was born 8th April 1856. Her mother is named as Sarah WARD who was residing at 'The Hainbew, Lilleshall'. I have her marriage certificate in which she names her father as John WARD and lists him as a Shoemaker. Looking at the census records only confuses me as I can find a John and Mary WARD, later a John and Martha where John is a shoe/bootmaker but the Mary A is 10 years older. When I find a John and Sarah they have a Mary Ann of the correct age but he is a miner. If anyone thinks they can shed any light on Mary/Sarah/John I would be greatful. Regards Claire
Hi both,
Knowing this area very well in past years I would agree 100% with Steve's thoughts on Amber Lane and The Hainbew both referring to The Humbers , local dialect/enumerators error.
Gulielmus.
Thank you so much for that above help. The local knowledge is very useful and interesting! I had very slowly begun to wonder if John, on her marriage cert, was her grandfather and it certainly fits very nicely. I also had very slowly begun to realise that Sarah JONES was in all likleyhood Mary Ann Caroline's mother. There is a wedding listed Mar 1862 tto that effect. I think Mary Ann Caroline is listed at Quatt Jarvis in 1871 which I think is a workhouse school. Thank you again for speeding the cogs up in my brain! Claire
Claire - glad I could help. If you would like further details of some of the records I used, get in touch via my Guild of One Name Studies profile page http://www.one-name.org/profiles/atcherley.html#contact
Steve
Hello Claire - I have just been asked by a friend, a William SKINNER, knowing that I am a SFHS member with Shropshire connections, if I could find some information about his great great grandmother, Mary Ann Caroline WARD. I would be interested in exchanging any relevant details.
I concur with all that has been said about her and her birth and in the early censuses she is difficult to find. I think she is Caroline WARD, a 5 year old boarder with Charles FENN and his family at The Hoo Cottages, Preston-on-the-Weald Moors in 1861. I'm not sure about Quatt Jarvis Pauper School in 1871, due to her age and the 3 other WARDs that she appears alongside - they look like siblings? However, I have no other suggestions for 1871.
Though living near Manchester, I am familiar with the area between Wellington and Newport. My great grandmother was born Elizabeth LATHAM, daughter of James and Mary LATHAM, who farmed Trench Farm in the nearby parish of Eyton-on-the-Weald Moors.
Best wishes, Ray Webb
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hi Claire
The father's name on Mary's marriage register entry could be a red herring if, as her birth certificate indicates, she was born out of wedlock. It would be quite a coincidence if her mother then married a man who bore the same surname as herself, though of course that possibility can't be ruled out. I have certainly seen examples of illegitimate children who gave fictitious father's details when the time came for the marriage register to be completed. (Either because they did not know the identity of their father and made the details up, or because they themselves were given false information.)
A family tree on Ancestry shows Mary married a William Charles Skinner and lived with him in Chorlton on Medlock in Lancashire. The 1881 census shows William, Mary (going by her third forename Caroline - she is "Mary A C Skinner" on the 1891 and 1901 censuses) and two of their children (William JONES Skinner and Walter Skinner) living in the household of William and Sarah JONES, both from Shropshire, with William Skinner's relationship to the head of the household (William JONES) described as 'relative'.
This may be a long shot, but what if the Sarah JONES on this census (aged 43 and born in Wellington, Shropshire) was Mary Ann Caroline WARD's mother? There is a marriage of a William JONES and Sarah WARD at Wellington, Shropshire in 1862 and Sarah WARD names her father as John WARD, a shoemaker.
Perhaps Mary Ann Caroline WARD gave her grandfather's name and occupation rather than the details of her (unknown?) father when she married. She may well have spent her early years with her grandparents, it was quite common for grandparents to look after their illegitimate grandchildren (and in some cases to claim them as their own children when the census enumerator came round!).
Sarah WARD might be the 13 year old Sarah WARD, born Wellington, who was a servant in the household of Thomas MORRIS in Lilleshall in 1851, and more importantly the Sarah WARD age 4 on the 1841 census who is shown as one of several children living George WARD (60), 'Jame' WARD (30, a shoe maker) and Mary WARD (also 30; all adult ages likely rounded down) in the parish of Preston on the Wild Moors, not far from Wellington. There is a baptism for a Sarah WARD at Preston in 1837, parents John and Mary Ann. In 1851 John WARD (41, name written properly this time, and still a shoe maker) and Mary WARD (41) are living at Humbers Lane in Lilleshall parish (now Humber Lane, just east of Preston) along with John's widowed mother Sarah (67, and a shoe maker), son Edward (10, also a shoemaker), son Thomas (2) and daughter Mary Ann WARD (3). John's birthplace is shown on this census as Dover, Kent. He shows up on the 1861 census at "Amber Lane" Lilleshall with another wife, Martha, and her father George WOOD (80); John's occupation is recorded as "Agr. Labourer" but above this is written "shoemaker" and his son Thomas WARD, now 12, appears as Thomas Wood WARD. In 1871 John, 61, is a cordwainer, still with Martha and still in "Amber Lane". I don't have the local knowledge to be certain, but suspect that "Amber Lane" and "Humbers Lane" (leading towards The Humbers) are one and the same.
Steve
PS - could "The Hainbew, Lilleshall" actually be "The Humbers, Lilleshall"?